[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 13, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CONTINUING RESOLUTION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last evening at 4 o'clock or thereabouts, I 
had the opportunity to go to the White House and visit with the 
President, along with Leader McConnell, Speaker Ryan, and Leader 
Pelosi. We met for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was a very good 
meeting. We had to discuss a number of issues. We discussed a lot, but 
I will not talk about them all today.
  There was a discussion about a path forward to fund the government to 
prevent a government shutdown--in spite of what the Wall Street Journal 
said today. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the 
Republicans should just close the government again. I don't think there 
are many Republicans who agree with the Wall Street Journal editorial.
  There is reason for some very, very cautious optimism about our 
meeting last night. We are going to proceed carefully. I know the 
Republicans will do the same. We have been down this road with the 
Republicans before. Happy talk is just that a lot of times. We have 
been optimistic in the past only to see the Republicans fail to live up 
to their end of the agreement.
  If we are going to pass a CR that keeps our government open and 
funded, there are a number of problems that must be addressed. We have 
to stop ignoring the problems with Zika. This has been a problem, 
according to the President of the United States, since last February. 
We have done nothing to give these people some relief, and they need 
it. We thought that it was just a problem that affected women and 
pregnant women, but it has gotten so much more serious than that. That 
is plenty serious. But now they are looking at the virus going into 
people's eyes and causing vision impairment, blindness. That is men and 
women. So we have to get something done with Zika. We thought we had it 
all done here with the work done by Senators Murray and Blunt. We had a 
bill. It wasn't everything we wanted, and it certainly wasn't what the 
President wanted. It was $1.1 billion. We sent it to the House. We 
don't need to go through what gymnastics they went through to throw a 
big monkey wrench into the good work we had done over here by passing 
it with 89 bipartisan votes.
  Last week there were 17,000 Americans infected with Zika. We are told 
by the Centers for Disease Control that there are now 19,000. That is a 
13-percent increase in 7 days, and each day it is only going to get 
worse. We need to treat the Zika virus like the genuine health crisis 
it is, not a bargaining chip for Republicans to use to attack Planned 
Parenthood, fly the Confederate flag, cut veterans spending by half a 
billion dollars, and other such things they stuck in the bill that came 
back from the House.
  We want to work with the Republicans to secure Zika funding, but we 
will flatly reject any attempt to undermine women's health.
  Once we have taken care of Zika, we must, then, as a Senate address 
Republicans' issues dealing with the continuing resolution, including 
riders dealing with the Environmental Protection Agency. They want to 
weaken the Clean Water Act by exempting pesticide spraying from the 
EPA's overseeing what goes on there.
  We need to find a way forward on both of these important issues, 
while trying to navigate Senator Cruz's attempts to slow down the CR. 
Unfortunately, this is what we have come to expect from my friend, the 
junior Senator from Texas. This is his shtick. Whenever the Senate has 
a deadline, he tries to obstruct government funding bills.
  So we have our work cut out for us. I am cautiously optimistic the 
Senate will complete its work on the funding of Zika and the CR. We can 
do it, but it can only happen if we work together and resolve these 
important topics.
  Mr. President, I ask the Chair to announce the business of the day.

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